How to Keep the Inner Fire Burning
“It’s not a question of being happy or satisfied, but to feel the fire inside.” ~Anais Nin
You only live this unique life once. You are the only you to have ever existed in the history of the universe, and there will never be another like you. It’s your responsibility alone to live this unique life to the fullest. You don’t do that by being comfortable, or by a moth, or by being obsequious, passive, or content. You do that by rising up, by choosing love over fear, with the full-frontal fortitude of all your ancestors combined, and becoming a raging fire that burns through all obstacles.
You must epitomize fire. Become Fire incarnate. Don’t hold back. No repose. No qualms. No quibbles. Become a burning beacon of unbridled hope searing through the human condition like white hot antifragility cutting through cold rigid fragility.
Rake your heart across the hot coals of Truth. Drag your all-too-comfortable ego kicking and screaming into the uncomfortable fires of Soulcraft.
The world is yours because you are the world. The universe is yours because you are the universe. God is yours because you are God. But you can only realize this when you are going full frontal boss mode into living your life to the fullest, to the nth degree, no punches pulled, passion somersaulting over passion, fire begetting greater fire, in love with the whole of it—from abyss to summit, from tragedy to victory, from wormhood to godhood. Let’s break it down…
Burn in the fire of self-interrogation:
“You must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame: how could you become new, if you had not first become ashes?” ~Nietzsche
Self-interrogation is philosophy in action. It is the most effective way to get out of your own way. It’s a method that aggressively asks mind-opening, heart-expanding, soul-burning questions. It outmaneuvers cognitive dissonance by “entertaining a thought without accepting it (Aristotle).”
Philosophy in action is about destroying illusions and murdering delusions. It unsettles settled mindsets. It tests the untested. It put God’s feet to the fire. It’s about counting coup on outdated idealism and transforming boundaries into horizons. It hangs a question mark scythe over all dyed-in-the-wool period points.
You become ashes through the fire of self-interrogation. You burn away the dross of cultural conditioning to reveal the dynamism of rebirth. You resurrect yourself through the uniqueness of your own heroism. Then you double down on your uniqueness. You individuate your individuality.
Philosophical self-interrogation is the darkest hottest fire in the universe. Let it burn you. Let it annihilate you. Let it forge you. Smolder in the ashes, then rise up as a more robust version of yourself, as someone prepared to adapt and overcome. This is Zen in the trenches. Be anti-fragile. Rise up into a new way of being human in the world.
When you’re resurrected through the raging fires of self-interrogation, you go from being nihilistically asleep to being existentially awake, you go from caterpillar to butterfly. You go from mere moth to Fire itself. You move from wormhood and into Godhood.
In short: You become Transcendiary (adj): Transcendent and incendiary in constant pursuit of elusive enlightenment.
Burn in the fire of hardship:
“As fire is the test of gold, adversity is the test of men.” ~Seneca
Hardship is merely kindling for a greater fire. Gather the kindling. Become your own crucible, your own inferno, your own Hell. Burn through the pain. Burn through the loss. Burn through all the false selves blocking you from your true self. Be Fire despite all moths, despite all gods, despite even Fire itself.
Setbacks are steppingstones. Deep wounds are procrastinating sacred wounds. Failure is future fortitude. Millstones are whetstones that high achievers sharpen themselves upon to discover the Philosopher’s Stone.
The fire of life eventually consumes us all. High achievers don’t balk at this mortal prospect. They walk into the fire instead. They join forces with that which burns. Because they understand that they must become Fire if they are to burn bright.
Non-achievers are the moths circling the fire, desperate, clingy, aimless, codependent. They fear, and their fear controls them. High achievers, on the other hand, are the fire itself, nonattached, flexible, purpose-driven, independent. They feel fear as well, but their fear becomes fuel for their passion.
Don’t be afraid of being a beacon for others, even if that means you must burn a few souls. Your fire is a boon, whether they realize it or not. Let them burn if they must.
As Hermann Hesse said, “People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.”
Don’t be afraid to seem sinister to others. Have the courage to be Fire. Burn all the moths if you must. Those who are fire will see how your fire is a boon. And although moths may get burned along the way, they may also discover the Phoenix hidden within them.
As Rumi said, “Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames.”
Rise out of the ashes like a Phoenix:
“A blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it.” ~Marcus Aurelius
If you want to discover your inner Phoenix, you must burn through your cultural conditioning. Burn through your faith, your flotation devices, and your crutches, and then turn them into kindling. Burn through the mythos of normalcy and embrace the authenticity of your own weirdness. Burn through invulnerability and discover absolute vulnerability. Burn through sanity with wild creativity and sacred insanity. Burn through the profoundly sick society and create a healthier society out of the ashes.
Order, comfort, and tranquility are overrated. They are too dull for sharpness. Too meek for diamonds and pearls. Too cold for forging. Too fragile for antifragility. There needs to be disorder, discomfort, and hunger. There needs to be friction, pressure, fire. There needs to be whetstones, hardship, and pain.
As Joseph Campbell said, “The influence of a vital person vitalizes.”
You cannot be vital if you are a meek, comfortable, content, status quo junkie afraid to ruffle a few feathers. You can only be vital if you are fierce, unapologetic, hungry, and a force of nature to be reckoned with. Jung said, “The difference between a good life and a bad life is how well you walk through the fire.” But I would go as far as to say: The difference between a good life and a bad life is how well you become Fire.
Practice Promethean audacity. Steal fire from the gods, let that fire burn you to ashes, then rise up with a Phoenix heart and fly over the mannequin culture. Thunder over the status quo junkies. Live deliberately. Be a courage-enforcer, a mettle sharpener, a Phoenix-awakener.
Repeat after me: Hardship is the substance I am made of. It is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire.
Image source: Rise by Stuz0r
About the Author:
Gary Z McGee, a former Navy Intelligence Specialist turned philosopher, is the author of Birthday Suit of God and The Looking Glass Man. His works are inspired by the great philosophers of the ages and his wide-awake view of the modern world.
This article (How to Keep the Inner Fire Burning) was originally created and published by Self-inflicted Philosophy and is printed here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Gary Z McGee and self-inflictedphilosophy.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this statement of copyright.
Comments
Self-inflicted Philosophy
garyzmcgee76@gmail.com
